This is Goodbye
by howlsatthemoon
Summary: Happy endings are overrated, anyway. / The one where Lily cries and Teddy leaves.


_Disclaimer: I own nothing but stupidity._

So some might've noticed I wrote the seven fics I promised already. I was going to come back to Lil/Ted with a big bang, happy endings and four thousand words and all such crap. But recently I've kind of wanted to kill a boy and I just really had to write this because I just realized that the story never ends the way I write it to end.

_Listen to: _Goodbye by Kesha. (It's actually a good song! Everyone look it up. I wish she sang more stuff like this.)

x

This is Goodbye  
-Happy endings are overrated, anyway.

_secrets out that I might just care about you  
__you broke me, you're leaving, there's nothing I can do_

(Kesha)

"So you're marrying her, then?"

"Yeah."

She looks away and blinks back tears. "That's great."

"Lils, I -"

"Don't."

x

She sits in a corner of the room, hiding away from the squealing girls and laughter, perfect Victoire the center of it all. She sips at her drink furiously, brooding in the dim light. It's almost a minute of sitting there does she finally notice that Roxanne's plopped down beside her.

"Hey, Rox," she sighs softly, placing her head against her cousin's shoulder. "I fucking hate this place."

Roxanne smiles, rubbing Lily's back. "He loves you, you know," she insists, and Lily glares at the floor, her shoes, her heart. "He's just afraid."

"He's a coward," Lily declares.

"He's in love. And he hasn't a clue what to do." Roxanne raises an eyebrow and Lily falls silent, mumbling under her breath.

x

She's with Teddy and she fucking hates fireworks. "Just pick a tux already, Ted," she growls, sitting down on a loveseat in the store and crossing her arms.

"I've already picked a tuxedo," Teddy admits then, opening the curtain and revealing two roses. "I just haven't picked what the bouquet will be of. That's the only other thing Vic left me with is this, and I don't really want to screw it up."

One of the roses is absolutely gorgeous, the epitome of health. Its stem is as green as the stars in Lily's eyes; its petals as red as her fiery hair. Slight, tiny thorns litter its length, but Teddy avoids them with ease, picking just the right places to put his finger.

And the other is just as fabulously beautiful, yellow and bright and pretty and eye-catching, all glamour and sweetness and the color of Victoire's blonde, nearly silver, hair.

"The yellow roses," Lily whispers, avoiding his eyes.

"But I like the red one better," Teddy murmurs back, inching closer to her. "Lily, please -"

In seconds, she is out the door and out of his life.

x

She stands, fidgeting, in her dark, Slytherin green bridesmaid dress, looking the sneakiest of all the five other bridesmaids - Molly in red, Rose in purple, a friend of Vic's in pink, and Dominique in golden, looking the brightest as maid of honor, but her ice blue eyes show guilt as she glances at Lily.

"Oh, you look beautiful, Lily!" Victoire gushes as she adjusts the straps on Lily's dress. "Have you shown Teddy your dress, yet?"

Lily hates her more than ever then.

x

She is at the end of the line of bridesmaids, holding onto her bouquet of (yellow) roses for the life of her, biting her lip, all the other girls (besides Dom, 'cause Dom knows all) happy and sparkly and beautiful and incapable of breaking. Teddy seems so far away in the seconds that tick by, and fuck, why did God give her a heart just so someone would break it?

She briefly contemplates walking out of the chapel at this very second, imagining Teddy's reaction, and then the music plays.

x

The wedding march ringing.

Teddy's eyes on her.

Victoire, beaming, walking down the aisle.

Roxanne's sad gaze.

Somewhere inside her, everything shattering.

x

"I do," he whispers, voice cracking.

To

lose

_everything_.

x

The reception is just as glamorous, what with flaming filet mignon on the plates and live, floating music on the dance floor. She sways with Lysander Scamander (his hands going too low) for several minutes until Teddy cuts in with emerald hair and dark blue eyes, all sadness and love and unrequited and forbidden.

"Why are you doing this?" she asks. A tear slides down. Mascara runs.

"I love you," he replies simply, calmly, pressing his lips down on top of her head.

"This is goodbye, then?" Her eyes are wide open, her mouth closed, but life is agony.

He swallows with difficulty and presses her closer to his chest. "I wanted to give you a happy ending, I really did," he admits, tears filling his eyes and his hands everywhere, bringing her closer and closer to him and she thinks, _Maybe it's too late_.

"Happy endings are overrated," she whispers as she's centimeters away from his lips and pulls away, his hands falling as she disappears into the bright lights, dancing away like tears dripping down your chin.


End file.
